OLN Monday Night Hockey question

[X-SHARKIE]

I see that they are saying it's the only game on T.V. on mondays....

Does this mean when I turn on the Sharks game on monday night on NHL Center Ice it will be blacked out?

I don't live near San Jose btw so I never had a game blocked out before.

This would really suck.

Click to read more...

 

[UvBnDatsyuked]

"Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, OLN will televise at least 58 regular-season games. These games will air consistently on Monday and Tuesday nights and be exclusive to the network"


It only says that those games being shown will be exclusive to OLN

 

[santiclaws]

I see that they are saying it's the only game on T.V. on mondays....

Does this mean when I turn on the Sharks game on monday night on NHL Center Ice it will be blacked out?

I don't live near San Jose btw so I never had a game blocked out before.

This would really suck.

Still not clear. variety.com reported a couple of days ago OLN would have exclusive rights to the game they are broadcasting, so it would be the only place to see it. This would be the opposite of the way it used to be, with your regional broadcast being seen and the ESPN national broadcast being blacked out.


LA Times today reported that OLN would have the exclusive right to broadcast Monday NHL games period, so there would be no other games broadcast anywhere in the U.S.

Hopefully, the first scenario is correct.

 

[X-SHARKIE]

I could see exclusive coverage of that actual game, but to black out all games makes no sense...it totally ruins the other partnerships that teams made with Fox Sports Net, MSG, ect.

 

[X0ssbar]

There are some conflicting reports but this is the latest I've read:

"By JOHN DEMPSEY variety.com

NEW YORK -- The National Hockey League plans to create a Monday-night game of the week during the 2006-07 season for exclusive carriage by Comcast's Outdoor Life Network (OLN).

That revelation was one of the new wrinkles in the three-year deal that funneled the cable rights to NHL games to OLN. The game of the week won't begin in the 2005-06 season, the first year of the contract, because the NHL had already drawn up the schedule before concluding its negotiations with OLN.

The only exclusivity OLN will get this season for the 58 regular-season games it carries every Monday and Tuesday night is with the contests being covered by the network.

If OLN has New York vs. Boston, for example, the regional sports networks in those cities will not be allowed to carry the games. But any other non-OLN games being played on Monday and Tuesday will get carriage as usual on the sports regionals."

 

[X-SHARKIE]

It makes absolutely no sense to have every single game on monday not televised except the OLN one.... Every other network the NHL has established a contract with would be punished, the fans would as well.

Although i'm the one that asked the question...I can't see them blacking all the games out...no way.

 

[Deleted member 3032]

It makes absolutely no sense to have every single game on monday not televised except the OLN one.... Every other network the NHL has established a contract with would be punished, the fans would as well.

Although i'm the one that asked the question...I can't see them blacking all the games out...no way.

I believe Bettman said in future seasons they will have many less games on Monday night so that it doesn't stop people from watching their games as much.

I think this helps the NHL out though, even though the fans won't exactly be thrilled about it. Anyone wanting to watch hockey on Monday's will HAVE to watch it on OLN, which will boost their ratings, and will make the executives real happy.

 

[HABitual]

I believe Bettman said in future seasons they will have many less games on Monday night so that it doesn't stop people from watching their games as much.

I think this helps the NHL out though, even though the fans won't exactly be thrilled about it. Anyone wanting to watch hockey on Monday's will HAVE to watch it on OLN, which will boost their ratings, and will make the executives real happy.

How will anyone outside the United States see Monday night games then if they can't get OLN?

 

[ej_pens]

It makes absolutely no sense to have every single game on monday not televised except the OLN one.... Every other network the NHL has established a contract with would be punished, the fans would as well.

Although i'm the one that asked the question...I can't see them blacking all the games out...no way.

They've done it before. ESPN had their exclusive night days as well in their old contract (I believe their night was Wednesday, when they used to show the games on ESPN). The NHL will work the schedule to limit the number of games those night (which is why it's not happening this season).

Networks aren't going to shell out that kind of money if they don't have a good number of nights where they are the "only game in town". It doesn't make any sense for them to pay all that money, just to lose ratings because fans are watching other hockey broadcasts that night.

 

[ej_pens]

How will anyone outside the United States see Monday night games then if they can't get OLN?

US TV rights contracts don't apply in Canada.

 

[Weary]

I think this helps the NHL out though, even though the fans won't exactly be thrilled about it. Anyone wanting to watch hockey on Monday's will HAVE to watch it on OLN, which will boost their ratings, and will make the executives real happy.

I don't know if it helps all that much. If the NHL really has, as they claim, remade the sport into something much better, they'd want as many games shown as possible. They wouldn't worry about the money from a TV contract. Exposure would be paramount to growing the fan base.

But it doesn't look like the league doesn't have much faith in its new product. They selected a broadcast partner that reaches a little more than half of U.S. television households. Then the league blacks out Monday night games on the regional sports networks. The end result is a lot fewer NHL games being available to viewers. This is the exact opposite of what they should be seeking.

 

[rabi]

Then the league blacks out Monday night games on the regional sports networks. The end result is a lot fewer NHL games being available to viewers.

The end result is one game per Monday...
(the home team and the away team)

How do arrive and this being a LOT fewer?

And since OLN is going to be given first choice of
games to telecast, what makes you think that a game
OLN is televising was going to be shown by an RSN...

People really need to do some reasearch before making
statements like this...

 

[PecaFan]

It makes absolutely no sense to have every single game on monday not televised except the OLN one.... Every other network the NHL has established a contract with would be punished, the fans would as well.

Although i'm the one that asked the question...I can't see them blacking all the games out...no way.

Bill Daly said in an interview today that the OLN Monday game will be the *only* game scheduled in the US that day in the future. So their exclusivity won't stop you from seeing other games, because other games simply won't exist to see.

There's still a bit of doubt as to what happens this year, since other US games are scheduled on Mondays. It would be hard to believe them blacking all the other games out.

 

[Tekneek]

Wait a minute. The NHL will only schedule one game on Monday nights, and that will be for the US TV deal? They should only schedule HNIC games for Saturday nights then.

It is not impossible to believe that a sports league would do this. MLB did it with ESPN for years, but lifted that a year or two ago (as I recall). Wednesday Night Baseball on ESPN used to result in the "Extra Innings" package being blacked out for everyone. You could still get your local team in your local market, but out-of-market viewers only had the ESPN game to watch. MLB saw the light and lifted that arrangement to please their fans.

NHL is taking a step backward if there is EVER more than the OLN game on a Monday night. If any viewers have to miss their team because of this TV deal, then it is a bad TV deal. Instead of driving fans to the OLN broadcast who would rather be watching a different game, they will get a backlash that may cause fans to never watch the OLN broadcast. It had best not be on for this season and they better do a great scheduling job for next season limiting Monday night games to the OLN game and absolutely nothing else.

Merchandise prices are UP. CI price is UP ("Early Bird" offer is down, but regular price is UP). The new TV deal sounds like it may screw the fans in the US out of seeing anyone other than Colorado, New York, Philly, and Detroit on Monday nights (just picking some teams that are likely to be on OLN the most often). Is this really what a sports league does that admits they have to win their fans back? They are definitely using a different strategy than many expected.

 

[Tekneek]

The end result is one game per Monday...
(the home team and the away team)

How do arrive and this being a LOT fewer?

There was an average of 4-5 Monday night games on the Center Ice package in the 2003-04 season, for a total of 112 games broadcasted over the season on that package.

And since OLN is going to be given first choice of
games to telecast, what makes you think that a game
OLN is televising was going to be shown by an RSN...

People really need to do some reasearch before making
statements like this...

You need to do some research. The speculation is based on news reports that say OLN will have Monday nights as its exclusive. This does not merely mean they get the national game to themselves. The news articles suggest that OLN gets the ONLY NHL TV games in the US on that night. This means that no other games are allowed to be shown in the US on Monday nights. The reports indicate pretty strongly that those are the terms of the contract. The only thing left to be determined appears to be whether that starts this season (05-06) or next season (06-07).

If it does start this season, we could lose a lot of Monday night games.

In October, there are 16 Monday night games over 4 Mondays. If OLN gets an exclusive on Monday night for this season, that's 12 fewer games we can choose from on TV. For November, there are 12 games on 4 Mondays, which would take 8 games away from US viewers. December has 22 games on 4 Mondays, which would remove 18 games from possible viewing. January has 35 games on 5 Mondays, which would take 30 games away. February only has one Monday of games due to the Olympic break, and there are 6 games on that night so we would lose 5. March has 22 Monday games over 4 dates, which would take 18 away. April has 20 games on 3 Mondays, which would take 17 games away. This is why there is significant concern as to whether this kicks in this season or next, based on the "Monday night exclusivity in the US" as now being reported in the news media.

If OLN gets this, under the terms reported in the LA Times, we will lose as many as 108 games that might have been available via a local broadcast or through Center Ice in the US.

 

[UvBnDatsyuked]

There was an average of 4-5 Monday night games on the Center Ice package in the 2003-04 season, for a total of 112 games broadcasted over the season on that package.



You need to do some research. The speculation is based on news reports that say OLN will have Monday nights as its exclusive. This does not merely mean they get the national game to themselves. The news articles suggest that OLN gets the ONLY NHL TV games in the US on that night. This means that no other games are allowed to be shown in the US on Monday nights. The reports indicate pretty strongly that those are the terms of the contract. The only thing left to be determined appears to be whether that starts this season (05-06) or next season (06-07).

If it does start this season, we could lose a lot of Monday night games.

In October, there are 16 Monday night games over 4 Mondays. If OLN gets an exclusive on Monday night for this season, that's 12 fewer games we can choose from on TV. For November, there are 12 games on 4 Mondays, which would take 8 games away from US viewers. December has 22 games on 4 Mondays, which would remove 18 games from possible viewing. January has 35 games on 5 Mondays, which would take 30 games away. February only has one Monday of games due to the Olympic break, and there are 6 games on that night so we would lose 5. March has 22 Monday games over 4 dates, which would take 18 away. April has 20 games on 3 Mondays, which would take 17 games away. This is why there is significant concern as to whether this kicks in this season or next, based on the "Monday night exclusivity in the US" as now being reported in the news media.

If OLN gets this, under the terms reported in the LA Times, we will lose as many as 108 games that might have been available via a local broadcast or through Center Ice in the US.

You need to do some research. Your looking at this years schedule to see how many games were losing and this doesn't take place till next season. (NHL has said they will adjust to schedule next year so there will be far less games on these nights)

As soon as I saw that it was the LA Times reporting this, (Biggest rag in the US) and then read OLN's website and saw that this wasn't mentioned at all, I sort of put two and two together.

There is only one place that stated that NO other games will be televised and that is the LA Times. Everywhere else you hear this story is from people quoting the LA Times. OLN does not claim this. NHL does not claim this.

All that's going to be done NEXT year is have Mondays and Tuesdays be those nights where there are only 3 or less games.

 

[Tekneek]

All that's going to be done NEXT year is have Mondays and Tuesdays be those nights where there are only 3 or less games.

Assuming 25 Mondays with games on the schedule like this season, and assuming OLN shows 1 game out of 3 each Monday night under their exclusive. That is still 50 games that nobody in the US can see. How is that better for the fans?

EDIT...I was careful to state "as reported in the media", which apparently your eye for detail missed completely. Up to this point, the LA Times are about the only media outlet that has done more than simply reprint the Comcast/OLN/NHL press release. It's hard to say everyone else has proven that article to be wrong up to this point, since hardly anyone else is reporting details outside of what was in the press release.

 

[Captain]

The Detroit News had something on this...

Comcast, which owns hockey's new cable home, might be in the market for an all-sports network.

But the regular-season schedule won't be drastically different from the past. Wings fans will still get a steady diet of the home team, mostly on Fox Sports Net, and the NHL's Center Ice package remains unchanged. Anywhere from 60-80 NHL games will be televised nationally by OLN on Monday and Tuesday nights during the regular season, beginning with the Oct. 5 season opener that features the New York Rangers at the Philadelphia Flyers.

I like this part...

Also, as part of the deal, Comcast now must carry the NHL Network -- previously available only in Canada

The release on OLNs website is very detailed.

OLN AND NHL PARTNER IN MULTIFACETED NATIONAL MEDIA AGREEMENT

 

[Trizent]

Mod, can you make a sticky or a FAQ because all topics covered in this thread have been covered numerous times on this board. People also need to read other threads and maybe use the search function as well.

This season, OLN Monday games will not be on local RSNs, just OLN. IE, that game is exclusive to OLN. Other games on Monday nights have the ability be on local channels/RSNs.

In 06-07, only one game will be scheduled by the NHL to take place on Mondays. This is referred to in the press releases as the OLN Game of the Week.

 

[UvBnDatsyuked]

Assuming 25 Mondays with games on the schedule like this season, and assuming OLN shows 1 game out of 3 each Monday night under their exclusive. That is still 50 games that nobody in the US can see. How is that better for the fans?

EDIT...I was careful to state "as reported in the media", which apparently your eye for detail missed completely. Up to this point, the LA Times are about the only media outlet that has done more than simply reprint the Comcast/OLN/NHL press release. It's hard to say everyone else has proven that article to be wrong up to this point, since hardly anyone else is reporting details outside of what was in the press release.

Ok. Go by what the LA Times reports and forget what the OLN and NHL press release states and totally ignore the Philly, Hartford and NYTimes articles. (And that was in 20 seconds of searching. I'm sure there are tons more that just don't copy the press release)

Even in the Philly article it mentions only playing one game on Mondays.

"As reported in the media" should say "As reported only in the LA Times and contradicted and not mentioned anywhere else"

My attention for detail was good enough to search for more newspaper outlets than just the LA Times article.

 

[Weary]

"As reported in the media" should say "As reported only in the LA Times and contradicted and not mentioned anywhere else"

Where is it contradicted? All the articles I've seen omit, not contradict, what the LA Times reported.

My attention for detail was good enough to search for more newspaper outlets than just the LA Times article.

Did your attention for detail also lead you to notice that the Times referenced Bettman on the issue?

Another drawback is that, according to Bettman, the plan is to make Monday nights exclusive to OLN....'Everyone should keep in mind that for this season, we did our schedule before we had this relationship,' he said on a conference call.​

No one can make you believe the LA Times if you don't wish to. But, you should at least concede that they put some jounalistic effort into their article while others just parroted the press releases.

 

[Tekneek]

My attention for detail was good enough to search for more newspaper outlets than just the LA Times article.

So was I. Unfortunately, I drew the line at going three pages back in news.google.com. You could have just shared the URLs instead of grandstanding, but let's not let that get in the way.

 

[LadyJet26]

Mod, can you make a sticky or a FAQ because all topics covered in this thread have been covered numerous times on this board. People also need to read other threads and maybe use the search function as well.

This season, OLN Monday games will not be on local RSNs, just OLN. IE, that game is exclusive to OLN. Other games on Monday nights have the ability be on local channels/RSNs.

In 06-07, only one game will be scheduled by the NHL to take place on Mondays. This is referred to in the press releases as the OLN Game of the Week.

That's because the US Network deal has NOTHING to do with games televised in Canada.

 

[nhlfan79]

Another drawback is that, according to Bettman, the plan is to make Monday nights exclusive to OLN....'Everyone should keep in mind that for this season, we did our schedule before we had this relationship,' he said on a conference call.​

No one can make you believe the LA Times if you don't wish to. But, you should at least concede that they put some jounalistic effort into their article while others just parroted the press releases.

Maybe you and the LA Times are reading too much into Bettman's statement. It's equally, if not more, plausible that Bettman means that whatever game OLN picks up on a given Monday night this season cannot be shown by the local broadcasters of those two teams, at least for this season anyway. Starting next season, there will be only one game on Monday night, making it a truly exclusive game.

 

[Weary]

Maybe you and the LA Times are reading too much into Bettman's statement. It's equally, if not more, plausible that Bettman means that whatever game OLN picks up on a given Monday night this season cannot be shown by the local broadcasters of those two teams, at least for this season anyway. Starting next season, there will be only one game on Monday night, making it a truly exclusive game.

I don't think that's the case. Bettman was specifically addressing Monday nights. The NHL's press release specifically states that both Monday and Tuesday night games are exclusive to OLN:

Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, OLN will televise at least 58 regular-season games. These games will air consistently on Monday and Tuesday nights and be exclusive to the network.​

It's also clear that the NHL does plan to make Monday nights exclusive to OLN next year. The only question is whether OLN gets that privilege this year or not. If they do, then regional sports networks will be necessarily blocked out on Mondays.